Playing the Enemy Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

In 1985, Nelson Mandela, then in prison for twenty-three years, set about winning over the fiercest proponents of apartheid before setting his sights on the nation's first free elections in 1994. But perhaps his greatest hurdle was finding a cause that would unite the nation, fractured after fifty years of apartheid. His choice was one of the most far-fetched imaginable: the Springboks, their national rugby team, long an embodiment of white supremacist rule.

John Carlin is senior international writer for El Pa+¡s, the world-'s leading Spanish language newspaper, and was previously the U.S. bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Wired, Spin, and Conde Nast Traveler.